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鼠年假期跟讀#772: About Taiwan : Odd pizzas at hand in Taiwan

身為台灣人一定會吃的經典小吃臭豆腐，竟然也能搬上國際舞臺，與西方美食披薩結合，迸出全新火花。繼六月必勝客推出榴蓮披薩，創下單日每十秒賣出一個披薩的紀錄，這次推出為限量「臭豆腐」披薩，鋪上滿滿的臭豆腐和台式泡菜，搭配濃郁的莫札瑞拉起司，絕對適合愛嘗鮮的你來挑戰。

Do you like Taiwan’s stinky tofu? Pizza Hut recently added the traditional dish on their pizza. Following the launch of a special menu –– durian pizza in June which set a record of one durian pizza sold every ten seconds — the pizza chain store decided to challenge pizza lover’s tolerance by launching the stinky tofu pizza. Stinky tofu and Taiwan version of kimchi top the pizza with mozzarella cheese, this western-Taiwan fusion dish is for those who love to challenge new food experience.

然而，這已經不是第一次台灣推出搞怪披薩口味，過去還有連鎖瓦薩美式餐廳將草莓大福包進墨西哥辣醬口味披薩，周圍還有草莓切片點綴，鹹甜滋味衝擊大家的味蕾。

Yet, Pizza Hut is not alone in creating unique pizzas. Chain restaurant VASA Pizzeria features Japanese strawberry mochi in its Mexican tabasco-flavored pizza. The savory yet sweet taste challenges epicure’s taste buds.

除此之外，台灣經典怪披薩絕對不能忽略嘉義大老闆手作披薩推出的「珍珠奶茶」口味披薩，上面鋪滿大量珍珠，奇特搭配讓人不禁好奇這樣真的好吃嗎？還有另一項鎮店之寶是「糯米腸」披薩，煎得香脆的糯米腸融入披薩，口味新奇，與起司搭配完全無違和感。

Moreover, a Chiayi restaurant, Boss Pizza, has unveiled the boba milk tea pizza featuring a great deal of tapioca balls on top. The restaurant has another signature menu –– sticky rice sausage pizza.

如果以上都不夠怪，那麼這個結合薑絲與西式薄片餅皮的披薩你絕對沒有想過。位於台北So Free柴燒窯烤披薩店推出這款「薑絲超人」披薩，嗆辣的薑絲搭配鹹蛋、玉米，簡直是中西文化在舌尖引爆。綜合以上各種「怪」出新滋味的披薩，準備好帶著你的外國朋友去嘗試台灣人無極限創意披薩嗎。

If any of the above dishes sound weird to you, the ginger superman pizza from Taipei’s So Free Pizza is worth a try. The spicy ginger, along with salted dug egg and corn together enrich your taste buds. Are you ready to take your international friends to try these “odd” yet creative fusion pizza?

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冬季進補吃比薩？超狂麻油赤肉口味限時登場 | Sesame oil-flavored pizza to challenge your taste buds

還記得今年連鎖披薩店推出的臭豆腐、珍奶比薩嗎？連鎖比薩業者昨（17）日推出麻油赤肉口味比薩，再掀話題。

Do you remember the stinky tofu and boba milk tea pizzas launched earlier this year? To celebrate the New Year, local pizza chain store Pizza Hut launched a new sesame oil with pork chops pizza on Tuesday, causing another online stir.

麻油赤肉口味比薩淋上香氣濃郁的胡麻油，遵循古法煸香杏鮑菇、爆量赤肉，與香濃莫札瑞拉起司相互交融。新口味大比薩每個定價359元，即日起14天限時快閃開賣、限量售完為止。

The sesame oil-flavored pizza, which also features king oyster mushrooms, pork chops and mozzarella, will tickle your taste buds. The pizza is priced at NT$359 (US$11.9) and it will only be available until Dec. 31.

這已經不是第一次台灣推出創新比薩口味。必勝客今年六月曾推出榴槤披薩，創下單日每十秒賣出一個披薩的紀錄。

This is not the first time the pizza chain store has launched odd pizza flavors though. Pizza Hut unveiled durian pizzas in June, breaking the record for the fastest-selling pizza in Taiwan — one sold every ten seconds.

Source article: https://chinapost.nownews.com/20191218-909801 ; https://chinapost.nownews.com/20190916-747523

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鼠年假期跟讀#771: Dihua Street’s Lunar New Year market

Every year, in the two-week run up to the Lunar New Year break, businesses along Taipei’s Dihua Street hold a special Lunar New Year specialties market.

每年春節假期前兩週左右，台北迪化街的商家都會辦理年貨市集。

The store-lined roads, with outside stalls laden with New Year dried fruits, candies, spiced drinks and meat jerkies, are packed with people anxious to stock up for the holiday.

商店林立的年貨大街擠滿趕辦年貨的人，店鋪前擺出的攤子滿是蜜餞、糖果、薑茶和肉乾等年貨。

The weather was cold on Wednesday, but mercifully sunny to take the bite from the cold, and the air was full of anticipation and festive spirit.

週三天氣很冷，但幸好出了太陽，驅走了一些寒意，空氣中充滿著年節的味道與對過年的期盼。

The sellers themselves, wearing matching Lunar New Year jackets and tops in each individual stall, were all in a jovial mood, smiling and joking with the customers as they handed out free samples and took their money.

每攤的售貨員都穿著自家店統一的春節外套及上衣，喜氣洋洋，發試吃品和收錢的時候，都跟顧客有說有笑。

The shoppers were dressed up warm, some in casual clothes, some in their best suits for the occasion; there were monks and foreigners and photographers and mothers bringing their children, as well as pet owners, carrying their dogs on their shoulders or pushing them along in pet pushchairs. There was one guy walking his pet pig — he’d had it for five months, he said — which had its snout pressed to the ground, hoovering the tarmac for fallen sweets, treats or dried meats.

採買的顧客穿著保暖的衣服，有些只是居家服，也有人穿得很慎重。人群中有僧侶、外國人、攝影師、帶著孩子的母親，以及把狗扛在肩上或用寵物推車推著的飼主。還有一個人牽著寵物豬──他說他已經養了五個月──那隻豬把鼻子貼在地上，把掉在路面上的糖果、零食或肉乾吸起來吃。

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2020/01/18/2003729416

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每日跟讀#770: Why the Star of a Big Hollywood Development Is the Sun

At last count, there were 34 major construction projects in Hollywood, which Los Angeles officials are determined to turn into a high-density area.

根據最新近的統計，好萊塢計有34個大型建案，洛杉磯市政官員決心把好萊塢變成一個建築物密集的地區。

But one new building stands out amid the glut, and not just because of its name — the Epic — or the company that will soon occupy all of its 13 floors: Netflix.

在這新建築物供過於求之際，有一棟新的大樓卻顯得與眾不同，不只是因為它名叫Epic，或是Netflix很快就會使用它全部13個樓層。

The just-completed Epic is the first office tower in LA to embed solar energy-generating panels (“building integrated photovoltaics”) into its facade, according to Hudson Pacific, which owns the property. Put simply, the structure will use its walls to capture and convert sunlight into electricity.

擁有該大樓的哈德遜太平洋公司指出，剛竣工的Epic是洛杉磯第一座將太陽能發電面板（建築整合太陽能）嵌入建築立面的辦公大樓。簡而言之，這棟建物將利用它的牆壁來捕捉陽光，並轉化為電能。

“Vertical panels are extremely uncommon and part of the reason is just physics — they’re less efficient than if you have them on the roof,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association, a trade group.

“So I’m not sure how much energy they will generate. But it’s still interesting.”

同業組織加州太陽能與儲存協會執行董事伯納戴特．德爾基亞洛說：「垂直面板非常罕見，部分原因直接關乎物理原理，它們的效率不如裝在屋頂。因此，我不確定它們會產生多少電能，但這仍是件很有趣的事。」

Del Chiaro described Los Angeles as “almost a clean-energy desert,” saying, “it’s the place with the most amount of energy need and the most sun and the least amount of this type of experimentation.”

德爾基亞洛形容洛杉磯「幾乎是個乾淨能源的荒漠」，表示「這裡是個能源需求最大、陽光最多，這一類實驗卻最少的地方」。

The 310 panels, manufactured by Walters & Wolf and installed on the building’s east and west sides (the two with the greatest exposure), will supply 1.5% of the power that Netflix needs, according to Natalie Teear, Hudson Pacific’s vice president for sustainability and social impact.

哈德遜太平洋公司主管永續性及社會影響業務的副總裁娜塔莉．提爾指出，由Walters & Wolf製造、安裝在大樓東面和西面（陽光照射最多的兩邊）的310片面板，將供應Netflix所需電力的1.5%。

“It’s just a cool example of what’s possible,” Teear said.

提爾說：「這恰恰是個展示可能性的很酷的例子。」

Chris Barton, Hudson Pacific’s executive vice president for development and capital investments, declined to say how much the solar panels added to the cost of construction.

克里斯．巴頓是哈德遜太平洋公司主管開發與資本投資的執行副總裁，他拒絕透露太陽能板會使建築成本增加多少。

“There’s a premium to pay for them, certainly,” he said. “But we want to do what we can to establish a market for this technology.”

他說：「當然，要為它付額外的費用，但我們希望盡自己所能為這項技術建立起市場。」

Netflix had no comment. A Hudson Pacific spokeswoman said the streaming giant would move into the building in the coming months.

Netflix未就此事發表評論。哈德遜太平洋一位女發言人表示，這家串流媒體巨擘將在未來幾個月內搬進這棟大樓。

The Epic has other unusual features — colossal outdoor work spaces with trees, fire pits and sofas, for instance — but Netflix’s primary Hollywood headquarters will remain across the street in a building (also owned by Hudson Pacific) that is known for its eye-popping lobby.

Epic還有些與眾不同的其他特點，例如有樹木、火坑跟沙發的巨大戶外工作空間，但Netflix在好萊塢的主要總部，仍會在對街一棟以大廳令人瞠目結舌著稱的大樓（亦由哈德遜太平洋公司擁有）之內。

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/348832/web/#2L-16233285L

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每日跟讀#769: No eyes? No problem: Marine creature expands boundaries of vision

A cousin of the starfish that resides in the coral reefs of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico lacks eyes, but can still see, according to scientists who studied this creature that expands the boundaries of the sense of sight in the animal kingdom.

有一種海星的近親棲息在加勒比海和墨西哥灣的珊瑚礁中。研究這種生物的科學家指出，它們沒有眼睛，卻仍然可以看得到東西，拓展動物界中視覺的界限。

Researchers said on Jan. 2 that the red brittle star, called Ophiocoma wendtii, is only the second creature known to be able to see without having eyes — known as extraocular vision — joining a single species of sea urchin.

研究人員於一月二日表示，該物種俗稱紅色陽燧足（或稱蛇尾類），學名為Ophiocoma wendtii，是目前所知第二種可以不用眼睛看東西──此能力稱為「眼外視力」──的生物。第一種被發現具有眼外視力的生物是一種海膽類。

It possesses this exotic capability thanks to light-sensing cells, called photoreceptors, covering its body and pigment cells, called chromatophores, that move during the day to facilitate the animal’s dramatic color change from a deep reddish-brown in daytime to a stripy beige at nighttime.

紅色陽燧足擁有這種奇特的能力，可歸功於覆蓋身體表面、稱為「光受器」的感光細胞，以及稱作「色素體」的色素細胞。色素細胞在一天當中移動，促使動物發生戲劇性的身體顏色改變，從白天的深紅褐色轉變成夜間的條紋淺褐色。

Brittle stars, with five radiating arms extending from a central disk, are related to starfish (also called sea stars), sea cucumbers, sea urchins and others in a group of marine invertebrates called echinoderms. They have a nervous system but no brain.

陽燧足從中央盤伸出五隻呈輻射狀向外發散的腕足，它們和海星、海參、海膽等動物具有親緣關係，屬於稱作「棘皮動物」的海洋無脊椎動物族群。這些動物具有神經系統，但是沒有大腦。

The red brittle star — up to about 35cm from arm tip to arm tip — lives in bright and complex habitats, with high predation threats from reef fish. It stays hidden during daytime — making the ability to spot a safe place to hide critical — and comes out at night to feed on detritus.

紅色陽燧足最大可長到約三十五公分（從一隻腕足尖端量到另一隻腕足尖端），生活在明亮而環境複雜的棲息地，身處珊瑚礁魚類的高度掠食威脅下。它在白天保持隱匿──也因此使得找到安全地點躲藏的能力非常重要──晚上才會出來，以海洋中的碎屑為食。

Its photoreceptors are surrounded during daytime by chromatophores that narrow the field of the light being detected, making each photoreceptor like the pixel of a computer image that, when combined with other pixels, makes a whole image. The visual system does not work at night, when the chromatophores contract.

紅色陽燧足的光受器在白天被色素體包圍，使得探測到的光範圍縮小。這時，光受器就像是一個電腦圖檔的像素，與其他像素結合時，就會生成一個完整的圖像。色素體到了晚上會收縮，所以視覺系統晚間不會運作。

“If our conclusions about the chromatophores are correct, this is a beautiful example of innovation in evolution,” said Lauren Sumner-Rooney, a research fellow at Oxford University Museum of Natural History who led the study published in the journal Current Biology.

這篇研究刊登於期刊《當代生物學》，主持研究的哈佛大學自然史博物館研究員蘿倫‧桑姆納─魯尼指出：「如果我們對色素體做出的結論是正確的，這就是演化創新的美麗範例。」

Laboratory experiments indicated the brittle stars have rudimentary vision. Placed in a circular arena, they moved toward walls that were white with a black bar, suggestive of a daytime hiding place.

Another scenario showed they were not simply detecting brightness versus darkness. When they were presented with gray walls making it so no part of the arena was lighter or darker overall, they still moved toward the black stripe, which was centered on a white stripe so as to reflect the same amount of light as the gray.

實驗室中的實驗顯示，這類陽燧足擁有基本程度的視力。將它們放在大型的圓形容器中，它們會朝向有黑色塊的白色牆壁處移動，讓人聯想到它們白天隱匿地點的樣貌。另一個實驗情境顯示，陽燧足並非單純察覺明亮對比黑暗的差異。在同樣的圓形空間，改用灰色牆壁，使得整塊活動區域沒有部分地方比較明亮或是比較黑暗的情況下，牆壁上有一塊白色粗條紋，正中間有一道黑色條紋。在黑白兩色反射光線相等的情況下，它們還是會向黑色條紋處移動。

“It’s such an alien concept for us, as very visually driven animals, to conceive of how an animal might see its habitat without eyes, but now we know of two examples,” Sumner-Rooney added.

桑姆納─魯尼補充表示：「對於我們人類，身為一種極度視覺取向的動物，想像其他動物如何不用眼睛觀看它們的棲息地，這是很陌生的概念，不過我們現在已經知道兩種範例了。」

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2020/01/12/2003729089

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每日跟讀#768: Original icon font promotes beauty of Taiwan

日本設計師Holoko和英國工程師Rob攜手創作出100個代表台灣的文字圖標（Taiwan Icon Font)，提供免費下載，期望透過台味十足的圖標，讓世界知道台灣的魅力，吸引更多人來台觀光旅遊。

Holoko and Rob, a Japanese designer and a British programmer, recently joined hands to design a hundred Taiwan-themed icon fonts in hopes of introducing local tourism attractions and attracting more tourists to Taiwan.

文字圖標是什麼呢？使用者只要打入對應代碼，便能產生小圖示，也可以像文字一樣改變圖示大小、顏色。

But, what’s an icon font? Icon fonts are fonts that contain symbols and glyphs instead of letters and numbers. Internet users can style them with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to create original designs in a variety of colors and shapes.

圖標種類分為四大類，分別是觀光景點、產品、交通、其他。除了全台從南到北和離島的觀光景點之外，還有珍珠奶茶、台灣鐵路、YouBike等等代表台灣的事物都變成超可愛迷你圖示。

The aforesaid icon font is organized into four types, including sights, products, traffic and more. In addition to famous Taiwan attractions and offshore islands, various cultural features such as pearl milk tea, Taiwan Railways Administration, and YouBike have been converted into cute mini icons.

Taiwan Icon Font官網寫道，創作者的發想理念緣起於2019年8月陸客來台禁令生效，對台灣觀光業造成衝擊，然而，設計師認為來台灣的不只有中國人，台灣的美足以吸引來自世界各地的人，盼能藉由小圖示宣傳台灣之美。

In 2019, China imposed a travel ban that froze individual tourists’ permits to Taiwan, which caused a significant impact on Taiwan’s tourism. Against this backdrop, Holoko and Rob launched this project with the hopes of bringing more people from around the world to discover the beauty of Taiwan, according to the designers’ official website.

文內自介寫道，「我們支持台灣，因為台灣有好大的吸引力，而且台灣就是我們的好朋友！」熱愛台灣的設計師不僅被台灣景致吸引，對他們來說，台灣更像是好朋友。舉例來說，珍珠奶茶在日本掀起的熱潮、每年增加的旅台日人、台灣2011年傾囊相助日本東北地震賑災，可見台灣與日本友好關係。

In addition, they stressed how “we support Taiwan not only because Taiwan is attractive but also is our friends.” Among other highlights, they remarked that Taiwan-Japan ties have been blooming ties in recent years which can be seen in the pearl milk tea craze in Japan, an increase of Japanese tourists to Taiwan and donations to the Japan earthquake in 2011.

「WE STAND BY TAIWAN」是計畫口號，呼應整體概念。設計師支持台灣自由、尊嚴而開始了這個計畫。目前已經出了第一版，而設計師們也會持續更新改善，讓世界認識台灣。

“We Stand By Taiwan” the slogan of the project, reflects such design concepts. The two foreign creators launched this project with the aim of supporting freedom in Taiwan. So far, the first version has already been released and they will continue to improve their original font to let more people know about Taiwan.

Source article: https://chinapost.nownews.com/20200114-931025

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